The Wedding Writer

The Wedding Writer by Susan Schneider

My daughter and I were lucky enough to meet Susan Schneider at BEA this year at the author speed dating event.  She has worked as an editor and writer for all the big bridal magazines, so this, her first novel, is about the bridal magazine industry.  We really enjoyed talking to her, especially since she knows Randy from Say Yes to the Dress, one of our favorite shows and even said she would hook us up when we are ready to shop for Steph's wedding gown (if she can ever get her boyfriend to propose that is!!)  The book wasn't coming out until June 6th, so Susan promised she would send it out to us, so we frantically checked the mail every day until it came!  I'm a faster reader, so I got to read it first (sorry about that baby girl!)

The Wedding Writer is about a bridal magazine "Your Wedding" and what happens when the editor-in-chief, Grace Ralston, is fired and replaced by the protege she took under her wing, Lucky Quinn.  Unfortunately, things do not go smoothly for anyone involved, as Grace is now considered too old and not fresh enough anymore and Lucky is stuck with staff members, Felice and Sara, who are still fiercely loyal to Grace. It is told in alternating chapters about each of the four women, so you get a different perspective on the events that are happening. 

I really loved this book and even though some of the characters are not entirely likeable, she still manages to make you feel sorry for them when things are not working out exactly as they would like them to.  I also discovered that I would NEVER want to work in the magazine industry (except for the goodies closet where they keep all the freebies and gifts from the advertisers - would love to get into that!).  I am now also convinced that my future daughter-in-law cannot get married in anything other than Christian Louboutin shoes, or at least a pair of knock-offs! Thanks for that, Susan!!!

So if you're looking for a fun read, this is it!!!

4/5

A Turn in the Road

By Debbie Macomber

I love Debbie Macomber - she tells just really nice stories.   You always know what you're going to get when you read one of her books.

"A Turn in the Road" is about a road trip that Bethanne Hamlin, her daughter, Annie, and her ex-mother-in-law, Ruth,  take from Seattle to Florida for Ruth's 50th high school reunion.  Bethanne needs the time to make a decision about getting back together with her ex-husband, now that his second marriage has failed, Annie is on the rebound from her boyfriend and Ruth is looking to reconcile with her high school sweetheart.
This trip takes them all places they were not expecting.

Like all of Debbie's books, this is full of likeable characters and enough of a plot to keep you interested, without being overwhelming.  Are there a few corny parts?  Yes, but  they just add to the charm of Debbie's writing.  If you're a long time fan, then this won't disappoint and if you've never read anything of hers before, this is a nice introduction to her work.  She does have some serials, but this is a stand alone and was totally enjoyable.

I would give "A Turn in the Road" a 4.5/5. 

The Night Circus

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

While at BEA (hope no one is sick of stories of BEA yet.  Got a lot of books there I can't wait to read!), my daughter told me to go stand in line for this book while she stood in another.  This line snaked all the way around the convention center I'm pretty sure and this book was being promoted as "THE NEXT BIG THING!"  I read the back of it while I was standing in line, as I wasn't even sure what book I was standing in line for (this happened a lot - I just go where Stephanie tells me, but only because this was her graduation gift.  Normally she does not have this much control over me.)  It sounded kind of interesting, although not something I would normally pick up, but never being one to miss out, I wanted to read it anyways.  Plus she gave out little chocolate mice candies with the book. Anyone that gives me chocolate is a friend of mine.

The Night Circus is about, obviously a circus that operates at night, but it was created as a venue for a bet between two master magicians, as to whose methods and protege are superior.  The two dueling magicians, Celia and Marco, were entered into this bet as children and trained for this event without their knowledge or consent.  As he starts to work for the circus, Marco knows who his opponent is, but Celia does not.

The story, background and characters in this book are so intricate.  The style of it reminds me of the Harry Potter series, where J. K. Rowling created a completely new world and language as her setting for the books.  Erin Morgenstern has a wonderful imagination and you feel like you are there, as everything is described in such detail, (but not boring, will it never end details) even down to how things smell.

The Night Circus certainly lived up to its hype and I am really glad I decided to give it a try, even though it's not my usual cup of tea.  The release date is 9/13/11 and I'm sure it's going to be a big success.  If there isn't a movie deal from this, I would be very surprised!!!  So look for this in the fall, grab yourself a copy and prepare to be amazed and charmed by The Night Circus!!!

I give this book a 5/5!!!!

How I Planned Your Wedding

How I Planned Your Wedding by Susan Wiggs and Elizabeth Wiggs Maas

My son recently became engaged and so a lot of talk now is centered around "THE WEDDING."  My daughter brought this home from work at the library and thought it would be fun to read.  Now, I am not the mother of the bride, but we are very close.  In fact, she asked me to come along when she picked out her wedding gown, which I was quite honored, as a lot of future mother-in-laws are not included in this event.  It was so much fun, like Say Yes to the Dress (one of our favorite shows), but without Randy. If you don't watch this, you really should.

Anyways, this book was co-written by New York Times bestselling author, Susan Wiggs, and her daughter Elizabeth when Elizabeth became engaged.  They alternate chapters, although the majority of it was written by Elizabeth, who also has a very funny blog, www.IAmTheBeholder.com.  Susan and Elizabeth are mother and daughter and best friends and Elizabeth has always shared everything with her mom, so of course her wedding was also a joint venture.

Normally a book about wedding planning is more of a how-to manual, but this was written  as a story with wedding details thrown in.  It was a very enjoyable read and I loved hearing about their tight mother-daughter bond!  Even if you are not in the middle of planning "THE WEDDING", you will love this book.

BEA/BBC!!!

Just got back from BEA/BBC in NYC, where we took our daughter, aka StephtheBookworm, as her graduation gift from college.  As you may or may not know, I started this blog at her insistence, so that I could go to BEA with her.  I went with the mindset that I would be just tagging along, but totally ended up enjoying the whole experience (minus the death cab rides, heinous lines at the bus terminal one night, inability to catch a cab 99% of the time and the general stinky, garbagy atmosphere).  We met a lot of super nice bloggers, librarians and teachers while standing in line for autographs.  We split up most times to cover more ground and ended up with 135 books that we brought home!!!

The highlight for me was meeting Harlan Coben, one of my all-time favorite authors (I have read every word he has ever written I believe), who I didn't even know was going to be there.  He was extremely nice and personable!!!  Almost like meeting Myron Bolitar himself.  (Where was Win?)   As luck would have it, I was reading his latest book, Live Wire, in the car on the way and had only about 20 pages to go when I met him.  He was autographing copies of his upcoming book, Shelter, which is the first in a new YA series he is starting using a character he introduced in Live Wire.  I read Shelter on the drive home, so my review today is a 2-for-1 Harlan Coben!!!

Live Wire (by Harlan Coben, as mentioned above)

This is the latest in his series starring Myron Bolitar, former basketball star/former lawyer/sports rep/private investigator.  Myron is asked by his client, tennis star Suzze T to locate her husband, rock star Lex, who has run off when a post shows up on Suzze's facebook questioning the paternity of her unborn child.  While investigating, Myron also runs into his sister-in-law, who has been estranged from Myron for sixteen years, so he also ends up trying to locate his brother. 

Like all of his books, this is a page turner, that manages at times to be a funny, dramatic, suspenseful page turner that I hated to put down (which I was forced to so we could go to BEA.)

I absolutely loved this book, which was only enhanced by the fact that I got to discuss it with the author himself!  Does it get any better than that?

Shelter (also by Harlan Coben)

Shelter is the first in a series of YA books, featuring Mickey Bolitar, who was introduced in Live Wire as Myron's nephew.  Because this is a YA book, it was quicker read than his adult books, but without sacrificing any of the wit and action of his adult novels.  It overlaps slightly with Live Wire, but this time you get Mickey's perspective on the events.  It then launches into Mickey's story, where he is trying to locate his missing girlfriend, getting into all the trouble you would expect from a Harlan Coben novel. 

I also loved this book and think it would appeal to adults as well as the target YA audience.  Spoiler alert - do not read this first if you are planning to read Live Wire!!!

All in all, a great experience and two great books!!!

Just want to make sure y'all read this book!!!

Miss Hildreth Wore Brown:  Anecdotes of a Southern Belle by Olivia DeBelle Byrd

If you're reading this review, I'm sure you already read the one posted by my lovely and much more famous daughter, Stephanie the Bookworm.  As soon as I read it, I demanded she give it to me read, thus holding up the person she is sending this to from Good Reads (sorry 'bout that, but motherhood has some privileges!) BTW, she did send it out today.  She doesn't usually give her books away, but this one was so cute and she really wanted to get it out there so more people could enjoy it, it's that good!

Anyway, I was a southern belle myself for a short time when I was a little girl and we lived in Smyrna, Georgia for a few years, so I am always interested in the Southern way of life.  This book is a collection of short essays on a variety of topics that are all so amusing.  My particular favorite is where she is describing a friend of hers who was on a very long car trip with her three children.  After hours and hours of listening to them fight, she finally snapped, turned and pointed to them each in turn and said, "I hate you, I hate you and I hate you."  Love it and could totally identify with that emotion.

If Stephanie didn't convince you to give this book a try, I hope I gave you a little push in the right direction.

P.S.  The author is so sweet - after Stephanie posted her review, she sent her a thank you note!!  How very Southern and polite of her!!

So what are you waiting for, go get this book!!!!

Been reading, but no time to write reviews!!!

My last post was March 8th.  I am so ashamed.  I've actually read quite a bit since then, but have been too busy (or lazy) to write reviews.  

WHAT I READ

Miles to Go  by Richard Paul Evans

This is the second in the series of "The Walk."  I read "The Walk" last year when it came out and it was so good, I read it in one sitting.  This is not as great an accomplishment as it sounds, as these are short books, but so well written.  In the first book, Alan Christoffersen, loses his wife, his house and business within a month.  He decides to cash in everything he owns and walk from Seatle to Key West with only a backpack. 

"Miles to Go" picks up where "The Walk" left off.  I won't ruin it for you, because if you haven't read "The Walk" yet, you should definitely read that first. 

I can't recommend these books enough.  The character of Alan is so sad, yet so strong and I can't wait to read the third installment, which unfortunately doesn't come out until April of 2012.  I absolutely guarantee you will love these books!!!


On Borrowed Time by David Rosenfelt

Richard Kilmer is head over heels in love with Jennifer Ryan, who takes him home to meet her parents, where she accepts his marriage proposal.  During a drive, a freak storm rolls in and Richard loses control of the car.  When the storm clears in a matter of seconds, Jen is gone.  Neither Richard nor the police responding to the scene can find her.  More horrifying is that no one in Richard's life will confirm Jen's existence and all traces of her disappeared.  Has Richard lost his mind or has something far worse happened?


David Rosenfelt is one of my favorite authors, who has on ongoing series featuring smartass lawyer, Andy Carpenter, which is awesome.  At first I was disappointed that this book wasn't about Andy and the gang, but this book drew me in within the first few pages and I kept reading way past my bedtime so I could see how it ended.  This kept me guessing until the end, every time I thought  maybe I had it figured out, there was another twist. 

If  you've never read any of his work before, you definitely should.  This is a great stand alone book, but the Andy Carpenter series is totally a must read!!!

What I Watched

Dear FX network:

I hate you for making such an excellent show, "Lights Out", canceling it and then leaving the series finale with such a terrible cliff hanger!!   I hope one of the other cable networks is smart enough to pick this up and continue the story.

Totally unrelated, also hated the musical episode of Grey's Anatomy, but I don't know of anyone who liked it.  And since this horrible episode aired, there have been nothing but repeats.  I've been a fan since day one, but they're going to have to step it up, 'cuz I'm losing interest. 

Not a good TV week at all!!!